Trip to Vegas
by David N. Brown
Summary: Columbus and Wichita consider their relationship. Bonding with Tal and Little Rock. Complications involving bikers... David N. Brown resides in Mesa, Arizona.
1. When you were running

**I've kicked this around a while, and am still not sure what I want to do with it. Here's a first installment. I plan to rate this "T", but could get on a more mature side: not graphic, but serious. Italicized lyrics are from artist Sara Groves, song title "When It Was Over". **

_When it was over and they could talk about it  
She said there's just one thing I have got to know  
What in that moment when you were running so hard and fast  
Made you stop and turn for home_

_He said I always knew you loved me even though I'd broken your heart  
I always knew there'd be a place for me to make a brand new start_

Columbus and Wichita lay in the back seat of the SUV, passionately making out. In the driver's seat, Talahassee snored loudly. In the rear, Little Rock slept on an improvised bed. Columbus broke the kiss and brushed Wichita's hair back behind her ear. "Do you want to do this?" he said.

Wichita frowned, turning her eyes in her sister's direction. "She might hear us."

Columbus looked to Tallahassee. "He would smell us."

Wichita sighed and changed positions, so that her head was at his feet. "When you remember the day we met," she said, "what do you think about most?"

"I remember you with your sister," he answered. "I could see how you cared for each other. And even when you had guns pointed at me... I wished I could be a part of it."

She nodded, and made a swallowing motion as if fighting a lump in her throat. "I remember when I stopped to let you out," she said. "I told you I hoped you would find who you were looking for. But I wanted to ask you to stay. Sometimes... I stay awake wondering if I would have, if you had gotten out that door." She shivered.

"I wouldn't have," he said, and hugged her legs. It was not long until Wichita was asleep, but Columbus's eyes remained open, gleaming with tears.


	2. The Proposal

Columbus and Wichita dined on a blanket on a hillside, with the last of the bottles they had pilfered from Bill Murray's collection. The SUV was parked behind them. Tallahassee and Little Rock were nowhere to be seen, as Tallahassee had promised to make sure of. "Krista," Columbus said, reaching for his back pocket. "Will you- ah" He paused while he fished in his pocket. "-Marry me?"

After a moment of conflicted silence, Wichita burst out laughing. "Oh my god, that has to be the worst proposal ever," she said. Columbus flushed, and fumbled with the ring in his hand. "I mean, you're supposed to get on one knee. And if you're going to propose, you should have the ring ready before you ask. And- Wait, let me see that ring." Columbus held it out sheepishly. She held it up for critical inspection. "Where'd you get this?"

"Tallahassee found it," he said. Under her stare, he added, "-Under the seat. Uh- I guess it's yours."

She dropped the ring back into his hands and punched him in the shoulder. "You propose to me- and you don't do it right- and your delivery is terrible- and you use my own ring? _And_ it doesn't even have a real diamond!"

"It looked pretty," Columbus said. "And- well, diamonds were never really worth that much. Du Beers had control of the supply, and kept the prices artificially high. They used to have people shot on sight if they were collecting diamonds... My geology professor talked about it a lot."

She rocked him with a hard shove. "And then you try to give me a lecture on geology!" She pulled him in and kissed him. When it finally ended, she was holding the ring in her hand, without him knowing how it got there. "And- I accept."

As they undressed each other in the back seat, Columbus said, "You know- I've never done this before. So-"

"Well, I haven't either," she said. He paused, she stared. "You thought I was-"

When Tallahassee discreetly returned, he found Columbus sleeping in the front passenger seat.


	3. Tal and Little Rock

**I thought of this only in the last day or so, but it would probably fit in best earlier in the story. (Anyone agree/disagree?) The flashback is based directly on a deleted scene, with a little modification to the dialogue.**

Tal and Little Rock lay on the bed, the man resting his head on the backboard and the girl lying prone with her legs intermittently swinging in the air. They were watching the only programming they could find on TV, which was "That 70s Show" in Spanish. Shouts could be heard from the living room. "I think Wichita shot Jackie while we were at Pacific Playland," Little Rock said.

"Hold on," said Tal. "Did you just hear a crash?" He did not need to listen closely to hear the sound of breaking glass- followed by a loud laugh.

"OO! They're having another smashing contest!" Little Rock said. She started to rise. Tal took hold of her ankle.

"I think your sister and Columbus want the living room to themselves," he said.

"Oh, Wichita doesn't do that."

"You sure?" Tal said with a smirk.

"Of course I'm sure. She always says, do things _for_ the boys, not _with_ them..." Tal narrowly avoided a spit take. There was another crash, more laughter and then a decidedly muffled cry. Little Rock barged out and shouted, "Okay McSkinny, what are you doing to my sister?"

A moment later, she ran back into the bedroom and slammed the door behind her. She crouched in an almost fetal position, and slapped away Tal when he tried to lay a hand on her shoulder. "Do you want to talk about anything?" he said. "C'mon over, girl. Tell Uncle Tal what's the matter."

Ten minutes and more passed before she responded: "If Wichita and Columbus are together, what does it mean?"

"Well, it doesn't mean she stops loving you," Tal said. "It means she loves him, too. But, I think when people are in love, there's more to spread around to everyone else."'

"What if she has a baby?"

"Then she'll love him too... And so will his aunt." Little Rock began to cry, loudly.

"Tal... I think I need to tell you something..."

_Six weeks earlier..._

"You know what's amazing?" Little Rock said as they drove off in the Humvee. "That they lasted this long. They should be so proud!"

"Yeah, they can die happy," said Wichita. Little Rock gave her a long glance. "No."

"Okay," she said, but kept giving her the questioning gaze.

"Look, what did we talk about?"

"Trust no one, just you and me."

"...Even if it means leaving behind the slow and the weak." After a pause, Wichita added, "Or in this case, one slow and one weak."

"Okay." She still didn't look away. "You know, in the Discovery channel shows, the wildebeest always wait for the slow and the weak. Ever wonder why?"

"Maybe so when the lions show up only the slow and the weak get eaten," Wichita answered sardonically. Her expression became thoughtful.

"Or maybe it's because even the strong and fast get slow and weak once in a while," Little Rock said.

Wichita turned the humvee around...

Little Rock cried herself to sleep on Tal's shoulder, without saying another word.


	4. One Left Behind

**So, this is setting up an arc for the rest of the story...**

Krista lay awake beside the man she still knew only as Columbus. She had never allowed herself to become attached to a man before, and wasn't sure how she felt about it now. He was, in every way, better for her than she would ever have thought before, and she could have told him things even he didn't know about himself. That, behind the anxieties and insecurities that made him seem cowardly, he had more courage than any man she had met. That he gave her everything she wanted from a lover. And that she was almost certain she was in love with him. But she was still not sure if it was enough.

She shifted, and gave a gratified smirk as she felt him stir at the brush of her hip. Then, unbidden, she thought of another passer-by...

_Seven weeks earlier_

The man was perhaps 35, but could have been older. He grew his hair long, but was obviously compensating for a growing bald spot on his scalp. He looked like an artist, though his 1980s-vintage Audi convertible marked him as most likely a middle-management executive with pretensions. He did not look at all at home on the roads of post-apocalyptic Oklahoma, but that made him seem all the more determined to survive.

His Audi convertible slowed to a halt for a young woman standing beside the road. "Please, I need a ride to LA," she said. She rested her hands on the door and leaned forward. "My fiancee's there, I know he's alive, but he can't get out. Are you going anywhere near there? I'll give you anything you want if you help."

The man considered first the ring on her finger, and then her neckline. "I'm on my way to Vegas; I hear there's safe places there. I can get you at least as far as the Arizona-California border," he said, getting out of the car. "But I'll want a little something up front..."

After fifteen minutes, he got back in the car, and the woman got in beside him. "Thank you so much," she said.

"So," Little Rock said as she sat up in the back seat, holding a PPK pistol from the glove compartment, "tell us more about Las Vegas."

When they forced him out of the car ten minutes later, Wichita threw her ring after him.

She awoke with a gasp, and a tear running down her eyes. Columbus mumbled and stroked her hair back, without completely waking. She kissed him, until his eyes fluttered open. "What is it?" he said.

"I... I love you," she said.


	5. True Sisters

Columbus sat on a couch in a cabin in northern California. Once again, Tal and Little Rock were nowhere to be seen- this time departed on an early morning run to the city. "I'm sorry," Wichita said.

"I am, too," Columbus said. "I- I shouldn't have let it make a difference."

"But it does make a difference, you know," Wichita said. "As-" She practically bit her tongue as she went silent. Columbus stared down into her eyes, his face twitching as wheels worked within his mind.

"Oh, god," he said. "I'm so sorry." She reached for her pants, pulled out her wallet and handed him a photo, taped together. He held it up to the dawn light. It was a photo of Little Rock, perhaps four years younger, with her older sister. A young man rounded out the subtly awkward trio, leaning in to sniff the older girl's blonde hair.

"She isn't my real sister, of course," said Wichita. Columbus nodded, she snorted. "`Real'. Let me tell you about her real sister. She took care of- of her while their mom was working two jobs to support them. And when she couldn't be there for her little sister, why, she called up her boyfriend, and he would drive all the way from college just to `babysit'. They found out about it, but never found him. Her sister made sure of that. So, she bounced to her aunt, who signed her into a foster home in Wichita, Kansas. She was happy, the first two days. Then she found the photo her aunt sent with her to remind her of home. I fished it out of the garbage, because I thought she might want it again later. You know why I kept it?"

The look he gave her now, as he saw the hate behind her eyes, was one she had only seen when she had him at gunpoint. "So I would know him when I saw him. I had it all planned out. I meant to do it to, even after the outbreak. I was going to search Little Rock until I found him, and then- I was going to bash him over the head, just enough to knock him out. I had a few ideas where to go from there. But I was sure I would cut hi-" Columbus managed to kiss her then, desperately fearfully.

"Please," he said with tears in his eyes. "He's gone. You're here, and she's here, and both of you are with me."

She nodded, and took a deep breath. "She stopped me," she said after a moment of silence. "I never told her, but she knew. I don't even remember how we got started on the Pacific Playland BS, but she remembered going there with her father, and she convinced me she needed to go there. I suppose she saved my life."

"Mine, too," Columbus said.

Tallahassee hit the brakes in surprise as he approached the cabin. "What the f-?" he said. A huge column of smoke and flame rising into the air. He hit the accelerator and barreled down the dirt road at nearly highway speed.

Wichita waved at them as the SUV skidded to a halt. Behind her, Columbus added a coffee table to the raging fire in front of the cabin. "We're having a campfire," Wichita said with a smile. "And guess what- we went through the pantry, and found everything we need to make s'mores!" As she raced her sister inside, she gave a slight nod in the direction of Columbus. Tallahassee turned in suspicion, but all he saw was Columbus throwing a small piece of paper into the fire.


	6. Destination: Vegas!

Columbus had his arm around Wichita as they announced their decision. "We want to have a wedding," Wichita said.

"Don't see how it makes a difference," Tallahassee said. "What do you want to do, anyway?"

"We want to... ah... go to Las Vegas," Columbus said.

Tallahassee made a T with his arms. "Wait a minute! Didn't we settle this already? No going into the really big cities? Especially ones with lots of bright, flashing lights?"

"But we heard a story," Wichita said, "that there are safe places out in Vegas."

"You heard the same story about Pacific Playland!" Tallahassee said. "I've heard it about a hundred places! It's all BS!"

"But it's not the same story," Wichita said. "This isn't about some place with no zombies at all, it's about a place where people are holding them off."

"It's the casinos," Little Rock jumped in. "Right at the start, they had guards, an' security systems, an' enough food for thousands. When people started turning into zombies, they acted just like kings in castles used to do: They locked the doors, fought off attacks, and lived off what they had stored." She crossed her arms and scowled. "It could have happened. And, by the way, there weren't any zombies in the Playland when we got there."

Tal rubbed is chin thoughtfully. "Okay. Let's say it's true, and let's say the people haven't starved or been eaten. How do we get there if it's surrounded by zombies? And when we get there, how do we get in? I doubt if they would have lasted this long opening the door for just anybody."

"We can see what turns up," Columbus said. "If there isn't a safe path to an inhabited casino, we turn back, don't even go into town."

"All that so you and your girlfriend can play dress-up?"

"No, so we can find a safe place to live," Columbus said. "If there's anywhere we can stay safe, it would be those casinos, and if they've lasted this long they're going to be working on ways to grow food, and clear the zombies off the streets instead of just holding them off. They'll want people with... experience." A light was dawning in Tal's eyes.

"And," Wichita said, "they'll have the biggest snack bars you can imagine. Who knows what they might find?"

Tal's ecstatic expression could have belonged to a pious man contemplating heaven or a hedonist contemplating fornication, but there could be no doubt what soft, golden temptation was foremost in his mind. "All right then," he said, "we're going to Vegas!"


	7. Stopover

**A little more on the "mature" side of things... **

They were reasonably sure, based on the presence of several slot machines, that they were somewhere in Nevada. They knew little else as they rolled into the gas station. "Okay. Gas, food, maps... uh, hygiene products," Columbus said.

Wichita kissed him on the lips. "You and Tal take care of gas, we can take care of food and such. Love ya." He stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels before going inside.

He went to the men's room first, and ended up alongside Tal. "I thought only girls did this," said Tal. Glancing slyly first at Columbus, then at the vending machine on the wall, he said, "So. You and Wichita."

He remained studiously silent, then as he relaxed, he started to talk: "Well... We talked, and tried a few things, took it, you know, slow, and we could tell we were, well,_ right _for each other. And-" He started to get a sly look in his eyes. "Well, have you ever seen the look she gets when she shoots a zombie? Well, I swear-"

The door slammed open as Wichita strode in. Columbus not only fell silent, he stopped in midstream. "Don't mind me, boys," she said. Then she used the butt of her Mossberg to bash open the vending machine.

He walked out in a coughing fit, walking faster as he passed Wichita and Little Rock, then slowed as he heard snatches of their conversation. "...Trust me," Wichita said, casting a bemused glance after him, "if you wait for the right guy and the right time, it will feel right."

"Yeah, but _that_?" Little Rock said, boring into the back of his neck with a toxic glare. "I mean, how does even _he_ like _that_?"

He returned from filling the tank to find Little Rock trying to console Tallahassee. "See, a Zinger is like a Twinkie," she said. "They're spongy, they're full of cream... The only difference is, the Zingers come with frosting on top!"

"No, no, no!" Tal said. "It's the texture that matters..." Columbus almost stopped to join in the debate, but kept walking under Little Rock's stare.

"It's okay," Wichita said as they brushed past each other. "She's adjusting, that's all."

They rode back out, with Columbus driving, Tal as passenger, and the sisters in the back. Tal pointed to a massive, decrepit brick of a pickup among the wrecks lining the road. "You see that?" he said. "It's a '63 Dodge D200. My father owned one for a while. I saw it once in a Christmas movie, you know, the one with Chevy Chase."

"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?" Columbus said.

"Yeah, that's the one!" Tal said. "Man, that Cousin Eddie busted me up."

"Wait a minute," Wichita said, leaning forward far enough to breathe on the back of his neck. (She had long since learned never to touch him while he was driving. "You sounded nervous there. Did you get scared by _National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation_?"

"The open scene's very intense," he said, hunching his shoulders. "I mean, the guys in that pickup truck are so mean to that family, and then they leave them trapped under a lumber truck... I saw it when I was young... Fine, twelve." He managed to relax his shoulders and give a sheepish smile as Little Rock burst out laughing.

As they rounded a turn in the road, the ancient Dodge pulled out and cruised at a leisurely pace after them.

**And, incidentally, _I _think that truck was scary. **


	8. The Promise

_There is a love that never fails  
There is a healing that always prevails  
There is a hope that whispers a vow  
A promise to stay while we're working it out  
So come with your love and wash over us_

The strip mall was at the edge of North Las Vegas, and looked to have been run down even before the zombie apocalypse. Its anchor stores, at opposite ends of the L-shaped structure, were a high-end outlet clothing store and a hardware store. Among the stores in the middle were a jewelry store, a Precious Moments figurine shop, and a reproduction weapons shop. Tallahassee tried out his latest weapon, an M16 with over/under grenade launcher, by firing a concussion grenade into the Precious Moments store. Little Rock cheered at the chorus of crashes. "Want to go in and finish 'em off?" said Tal.

"No," Little Rock said, after a genuine pause for thought. "Wichita wants help picking out clothes." The sisters hurried giggling toward the clothing store. Tal wandered into the weapons shop. Columbus went to the jewelry store.

"So," Little Rock said as she handed clothes to her sister, "you are _totally_ into this guy!"

"I know, I can't believe it," Wichita said. "I guess it happens."

Little Rock appraised her selection. "Yeah, he's going to explode when he sees that skirt," she said. "It fits with your jacket. But we need something different for a top." A short time later, she concluded, "Now that is perfect. But I'm thinking, accessorize. The weapons shop... No, the hardware store!"

"Exactly what I as thinking," Wichita said. She turned, and then almost spontaneously they were in each other's arms, in tears.

_Three years earlier..._

In the back of a red convertible, Krista winced as her sister stitched the cut on her lip. When it was done, she pressed an ice pack to her sister's black eye. "Look, we have the car, and the only people who know we have it aren't going to talk about it," she said. "We're free and clear, as long as we keep moving. We can get money whenever we have to... I can always think of something. From now on, we trust no one. Just you and me." She rested her chin on the top of her sister's head. "And I swear- I promise to _God_... Nobody ever hurts you again. _Ever._"

Columbus stepped into the weapons store. Tallahassee turned to greet him, twirling a ball and chain. "How to you think the zombies will like a real mace face?" he said.

"Well, it's not going to intimidate them, any more than anything else," Columbus said, almost absent-mindedly. "And that's not a mace; a mace has a head fixed to a solid handle. That's a flail... And there's actually no evidence that it was used historically... It's really not even a practical weapon."

"Wha- OW!" In his distraction, Tal hit his own ear.

Columbus looked over the weapons, and chose a vintage KaBar for later evaluation. "Listen, have you seen Wichita?"

Tal smirked. "Yeah, I saw her and Little Rock headed for the hardware store. Saw what she was wearing, too. You're gonna be one lucky little spitf*." Columbus walked out flustered, and neglected to perform his usual 360 survey. Thus, he never saw the Dodge pickup.

Little Rock leaned against the hardware store's massive metal and wood shelves. "Don't you know it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding?" she said with a hint of bemusement.

"Yes... right... unlucky..." Columbus made another false start at breaking his stare. He was still taking in parts of Wichita's outfit, without quite getting a handle on the whole. He managed to get as far as shifting from the slitted black leather skirt and black stockings to the strapless scarlet top and peeking lingerie.

Wichita strode up to him and placed the Mossberg in his hands. "Now that you're here," she said, "maybe you can help me accessorize." She stepped back and reached for one of her selections.

Then Little Rock gave a stifled cry. Columbus whirled around in an instant, and barely held his fire. Tal stood at the door, his hands tied together on top of his head. Behind him were five men with guns and blunt instruments. Not far off, he heard the sound of approaching motorcycles.


	9. Standoff

Columbus pumped the shotgun, but held his fire, weighing the odds. One biker was already in the door, crouched behind a checkout counter. Another was to the left, covering him through the glass storefront. The other three stood just outside the door. All wore flak jackets. There could be no question of the position of two of them. A big man with a vintage Army helmet, long hair an even longer beard was a perfect fit for second in command: His obvious size and strength were combined with a gaze that was perceptive but without the intelligence and initiative of a leader. He held Tal's own M16 to the back of his head. "How did you get captured?" he said to Tallahassee. "You had the assault rifle!"

"I know!"

"With a grenade launcher!"

"I know!" Tal burst into tears. "But they're _people_, man!"

The biker who stepped forward now, carrying an inelegant .44 revolver, could only be the leader. His shaved head looked more like a concession to the inevitable than a choice. He looked about 35, but could have been older. He looked as subtly out of place among the bikers as a feral dog in a pack of wolves: He was less imposing in physique, and less assured in his manner, but there was a quality of anxiety tempered by cunning, which marked him as someone who, given the mettle to survive at all, could not stop until he had reached the top.

"We don't like killing," he said as he stepped inside, with the smooth voice of someone working far below his income potential. "Well... at any rate, _I _don't like killing. So let's see if we can work something out. First, let's make introductions. You can call me Branson. That's Enid." He indicated his second. "And I understand he goes by Tallahassee, and you answer to Columbus."

"What do you want?" Columbus said. "Guns? Food? Gas?"

"Oh, we have those things in more abundance than you could imagine, and if we needed them we wouldn't need your cooperation to take them," said Branson. "But we have some use for services." He looked briefly but pointedly at Wichita and Little Rock.

Wichita pulled her sister to her. "Nobody touches her."

Branson smiled. "All well and good... Just make a deal."

"Please," Little Rock sobbed, "not for me."

Branson looked back to Columbus. "But first- drop the gun."

"Don't," Wichita hissed. Branson looked at her again, this time thoughtfully, almost uneasily. But Wichita was paying more attention to Columbus and his trembling hands. "I'll kill you if you do!"

Enid stepped inside, leaving Tal with an even larger man. Columbus leveled the gun at him. "Go ahead," he said in an incongruously pleasant voice. "Get it out of your system." Columbus all but threw the gun to Branson. He caught the shotgun with one hand, relinquishing a double-handed grip on the .44, and the shotgun casually by the middle.

"You coward, I hate you!" Wichita shouted. She fired her PPK pistol before anyone realized it was in her hand. She fired two shots through the storefront, and the biker covering her fell, stunned or injured either by her fire or by a rain of falling glass. Enid pinned Columbus to the shelf. Branson nimbly jumped to the cover of a display stand of paint cans. Turning her body to protect her sister, she drew a bead on him with the pistol.

"Please," Branson said, "Let's be sensible. You have, what, six shots? Just five if you were smart and left the chamber empty." The biker behind the checkout stand shifted positions for a better shot. She fired four shots, hitting him in the vest and the unprotected shoulder. A near miss caused the cash register drawer to fly open, striking him in the back of the head and slamming him chin-first into the counter. She shifted her aim back to Branson. "Get out of here, or I kill you."

"Then what?" he said. "I'm dead, you're out of bullets, and believe me, I'm the least of your problems."

Wichita kissed her sister's head. Then, with her chin still resting on her scalp, she thrust the gun against Little Rock's throat. "No one hurts her," she said coldly. "Never again."

**Incidentally, that's "Enid" as in "Enid, Oklahoma".**


	10. Reunion

"Oh,*," Columbus said, trying to see around Enid. "Holy *."

Enid grinned, exposing teeth that had been rotten and crooked long before the American Dental Association became zombie food. "Tell you what," he said. "Talk her down, and we'll let you have her back when we're done."

Branson shoved over the display stand, sending paint cans everywhere. "Enough play time," he said. "Final offer. Drop that gun, we let them go."

"You first," she said.

"Things don't work that way," he said as he advanced toward her. "We're the ones with the leverage." He stopped abruptly. Again, a troubled look was on his face. He looked at her hand, and especially the ring on her finger. A light of recognition dawned, followed by pure hate. "Good God. You're them. That's my own * gun. And I've still got your ring, you *!"

"Oh, God," Wichita said.

"You know, you gave me one of the best jobs I've ever had," he said. "Think you can do enough to pay for an Audi?"

"I'm sorry," she said.

"We're way past the time for that," he said. "You know the worst part? I was _into_ you. I was ready to ask you to come all the way to Vegas with me. I was even thinking we might settle down there. But you cut that short, didn't you?"

"I wasn't into you," she said coldly. "You were a big, selfish prick. I could hardly wait to leave you by the road. You were the only one I ever wanted to die."

"So, so much for apologies!" he said. Pointing back with the butt of the shotgun, he added, "But I guess we both did pretty well for ourselves. I met Enid. You met that runt. Just in case you actually care, I don't think I'll hurt him, 'cause I pity him. How much longer were you planning to string him along?"

"Columbus?" Wichita said. Columbus didn't answer. "Columbus, I love you."

At almost the same moment, Tal shouted, "Wichita, behind y-!" He was cut short with a blow to the head from the only biker still outside. The other had used Branson's distraction to climb through the broken storefront, go around behind Wichita and grab her gun hand through the shelving.

The pistol fired.


	11. Vengeance

Sparks showered down from a lamp over Columbus's head. Enid lurched back in pain. Columbus saw Wichita struggling to free herself from the biker holding onto her arm. "Run!" she screeched to her sister.

Wichita struck the attacker behind her with the butt of her empty pistol, knocking off his police-issue helmet with a stunning blow. But then Branson hit her over the head with her own shotgun, and she sprawled to the floor. "You're mine now, whore," he said, pressing his foot between her shoulder blades. Then there was a cry from Enid. She and Branson both looked to see him drop to his knees with a KaBar knife low in his chest. His expression was more of surprise than pain, and much the same expression was on Columbus's face.

Branson fired at him, but his aim was poor with only one hand, and Columbus was already running at him. Columbus slammed into him, and with the benefit of surprise as much as momentum pushed him back to the shelves. He dropped the shotgun, and with one hand freed was able to wrestle back. Before the chief could take advantage of his superior strength and much greater experience, Columbus slammed his head back into a metal post with stunning force. Branson toppled forward, and he had scarcely hit the floor before Wichita was upon him.

The biker outside pushed Tallahassee aside, raising the assault rifle to intervene. Before he could fire, Tal struck a necessarily double-handed blow to the back of his head, then struck a roundhouse slap to his chin. He staggered and dropped the gun, but countered with a punch that sent Tal skidding. As he bent to pick up the rifle, a small voice said, "Hands up." He looked up, and smiled.

"C'mon, kid," he said, "do you think a kevlar vest can't stop a nail gun?"

As Little Rock quickly demonstrated, it couldn't.

Wichita's overtaxed pantyhose failed catastrophically as she drove her heel into the fallen chief's crotch. "Wichita!" Columbus shouted. He tried to take her by the arm, but she literally shrugged him off. Then he grabbed her around the waist and hauled her back. "He's down! We're safe!" he said. For a moment, he lifted her off the floor and set her down beside the shelf. "Now we need to get out of here!"

Wichita snatched up a circular saw and revved it. "He would have taken me," she said. "He would hurt Little Rock. You would have let him."

"No, you know that isn't true," Columbus said. "The shotgun couldn't get through a flack jacket. The knife could. I let go of the gun so they would let their guard down, and come closer. I could have saved you even sooner if you hadn't pulled the gun!" She stepped forward, and he took a step back.

"He's a leader of a gang," she said.

"But you put him there,"he said. He reflexively backed up again.

"I didn't make him what he is. He was a prick when I met him, and he as a prick after. I just led him to the right people. If we let him go, he'll just hurt more people."

"But he isn't hurting anyone else today. And he's human."

"Krista?" Little Rock said.

Columbus brushed her hair behind her ear. "Who do you want her to grow up to be in Zombieland?"

Wichita dropped the saw with a clatter. "I don't hate you," she said. "But I wish I'd never let you touch me." Then she turned and hugged her sister.

They ran for the SUV, pausing only long enough to help Tal to his feet. Columbus heard a small voice say, "Little help?" He hurried on, assuring himself that he had _not_ just seen a man with both hands nailed to his flak vest.

Just as they peeled out of their parking place, a car and swarm of motorcycles pulled up to the mouth of the parking lot. "Don't stop," Wichita said.

"I won't," Columbus answered. Before he could put the SUV in gear, a bullet slammed into his door. Turning in surprise, he beheld Branson lurching after them, a .32 pistol in hand.

"Just so we're clear," the chief shouted. Then he waved his arms in a signal, and the bikers scattered. "You let me live, I let you live- for now." Columbus nodded and hit the gas.


	12. Forgiveness

_When it was over and they could talk about it  
They were sitting on the couch  
She said what on earth made you stay here  
When you finally figured out what I was all about  
He said I always knew you'd do the right thing  
Even though it might take some time  
She said, Yeah, I felt that and that's probably what saved my life_

By nightfall, they stood in the chapel at the Circus Circus casino. While still miles out of town, they had been met by an armed patrol from the casino. The management was sufficiently impressed by Tallahassee's exploits that they insisted on sending a helicopter to pick them up. The ceremony was presided over by a member of the clergy not ordinarily involved in such proceedings, one Sister Cynthia Knickerbocker.

Tal led Wichita down the aisle, still in her specially selected get-up but wearing a white fur coat over everything else as a token concession to tradition and general modesty. Columbus stood at the end, dividing his gaze between longing looks at his bride and nervous glances at Little Rock, who stood beside him in lieu of a best man. Tal guided his hand to Wichita's, and on contact his mind fell under a cloud of warm, friendly static. He only sporadically followed what was being said, and saying yes when something was expected. He was sure he botched even that; at one point Wichita stifled a giggle and Little Rock gave him a furtive kick in the shin. He took the longest sustained interest when Sister Knickerbocker recited a Bible verse he had memorized at around age ten and could still remember: "Love is patient... Love is kind... Love keeps no record of wrongs..." At that phrase, he met Wichita's eyes and saw sadness there. He squeezed her hand, and she smiled, though a tear ran down her cheek.

Then the time came to kiss the bride, and he all but fell upon her.

Sister Cynthia loudly cleared her throat. He looked up, and Wichita pushed him back. "The bride requested an additional ceremony," she said. Wichita stepped back, leaving him to face Little Rock.

"Do you, Little Rock Arkansas, take this man Columbus Ohio to be your brother-in-law, to help and put up with no matter how annoying he gets?"

Little Rock's face contorted with every appearance of long thought. "Okay, I do."

"Do you, Columbus Ohio, take this woman Little Rock Arkansas to be your sister-in-law, to protect and take care of like your own sister?"

"I do," he said.

"Then, you may now shake hands." They did.

_Oh love wash over a multitude of things  
Love wash over a multitude of things  
Make us whole_

As Columbus carried her awkwardly over the threshold of a penthouse honeymoon suite, Wichita said, "Wait. Do you need to ask me-?"

"No," he said, not needing to be told the question. He only wiped away a tear before shutting the door behind them.

In the chapel, Sister Cynthia listened to Little Rock while she cried on Tallahassee's shoulder. "He was just one," she said, "just one man we left on the side of the road. But there were so many! _I can't even remember how many!_" She only cried harder as Tal tried to put his arms around her. "And we almost did the same thing to you!"

_There is a hope... there is a healing... and a promise to stay._

Columbus and his bride reclined in the hot tub. He whispered in her ear, and flushed but managed a sheepish grin as she burst out laughing. "Oh, my, God, that is exactly what your name would be! Maybe I'll call you that in bed from now on." She started to say something more, but he ducked her head under the water. She ducked his back, and soon they were in another wrestling match which neither wanted to win.

Tal lay on a couch, which he had moved to look out onto the balcony. "Somewhere out there," he said, sweeping the skyline expansively,"there's a grocery store. And somewhere in it, there's the _last_ box of Twinkies."

"And the _last_ pack of Trident sugarless gum," Little Rock added, sounding sleepy but still cheerful.

"Yeah! And in the back there's two sisters... who really love each other... and just need to know that other people care about them too."

"I'd like to meet them."

"Me too, pup." And soon, both slumbered.

_So come with your love, and wash over us._

**I'm definitely not done with this series or my story arc, but this is it for this fic. Thanks to those who followed this far, especially those who have left reviews. If your interests run that way, you can also check out "the Rookie" under Terminator, which I plan to give an extra push in the immediate future (Wichita/Krista as treated here has quite a bit in common with my OC Cass in that story), my completed fics on this site, and my fiction and nonfiction on other sites. And Sara Groves is worth a look too!**


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